posted Jul 6th, 2005 - Joey Jones mentioned earlier in the NSL News interview today that "the Russian battle is awesome on all fronts" and then explained the athletic part of it. There are in fact three Russian contenders for the top position in the country, the Sky Panthers, Extreme.RU and SkyLight Barkli. Extreme.RU is currently two points ahead of the Sky Panthers and eight points ahead of SkyLight Barkli. However, each of the three teams has already posted at least one highscore for a round in this 3-way race and is capable of winning more rounds.

The other front Joey Jones was talking about is a battle between the Sky Panthers and the Russian skydiving federation. The Sky Panthers were the Russian 4-way champion and the national team in 2004 and won the first 4-way bronze medal for Russia at the World Championship of Formation Skydiving 2004 in Croatia.

The Sky Panthers 2004 consisted of Vasiliy Korotkov, Alexei Minaev, Evgeniyy Stashchenko and team sponsor Michail Kuznetzov. The NSL News story on February 28, 2005, provided a lot of information on how the Sky Panthers had planned the team's future and the pursuit of a gold medal in 2006.

Michail Kuznetzov's political career became even busier shortly after the success in Croatia 2004. He was elected as the Governor of Pskov, one of the Russian states. He could not continue as a full member of the Sky Panthers and stepped back to be only available as the alternate for his team in 2005.

Russian veteran competitor Vladimir Pavlenko was added to the 2005 line-up when Michail Kuznetzov had to step back, and the new line-up with Vladimir Pavlenko trained at SkyVenture Orlando in February 2005. The Sky Panthers at the Malevsky Cup 2005 then had another new member in the line-up.

Alexandr Kvochur is the newest Sky Panther, while Vladimir Pavlenko competes at the Malevsky Cup 2005 with the third team of this 3-way race, SkyLight Barkli. The athletic part of the race currently shows all three teams on a very similar performance level with Extreme.RU and the Sky Panthers being more consistent.

There is a political battle behind the athletic performance. The Russian federation decided a few weeks ago that Extreme.RU will be assigned as the new national 4-way team of Russia. There has been friction between the Sky Panthers and the team's former member and sponsor, Michail Kuznetzov, when he decided to step back.

The Sky Panthers explained that Michail Kuznetzov still wanted the team to be available for jumping with him once in a while, while the remaining team members wanted to pursue the gold medal at the world championship in 2006. This conflict could not be resolved, and the parties separated from each other.

The latest chapter of the Sky Panthers' story included the recent decision by the Russian federation to assign Extreme.RU as the Russian national 4-way team, and the Sky Panthers were and are not very happy with this decision. They claim that they are still the reigning national champion until the Russian championship 2005 and should be the national team.

The issue has now turned into a very interesting situation at the Malevsky Cup 2005 where both teams compete under increasing pressure. The Sky Panthers have to show that they have a good reason to complain against the decision of the Russian federation. Extreme.RU has to bring up the evidence for being the best team Russia has to offer at this point.

Extreme.RU is up by two points after six rounds. It will make it more difficult for the SkyPanthers to underline the team's position on the green table if they end up behind the new official national team. The pressure is increasing, and there are four more rounds to go.